Interest in Bitcoin Grows on Wall Street

Meanwhile, leading figures from Wall Street and Washington are, like Mr. Niederauer, taking job offers in the digital-currency sector. Long-time J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Masters, who is credited with pioneering the global credit derivatives industry, this month took the helm of blockchain trade settlement firm Digital Assets Holdings. In October, former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Arthur Levitt became an adviser to payment processor Bitpay and in January, digital currency-based payments platform Ripple Labs named former National Economic Council director Gene Sperling as a director. BitFury, which provides specialized computers for the “mining” process of confirming bitcoin transactions, has tapped Jason Weinstein, a former head of the Department of Justice’s criminal division, as an adviser.